


Found Out About You

by Kit_Kat21



Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Small Town, Depression, Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified, F/M, Family Secrets, Grandmothers, Jon Snow is Not a Stark, Jon Snow is Not a Targaryen, Miscarriage, Starting Over, Veterinary Clinic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-08
Updated: 2020-06-03
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:07:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 21,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23536522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kit_Kat21/pseuds/Kit_Kat21
Summary: “That was her place. I have the mancave in our garage and she had Blueberry Lake.”The other papers were more photocopies of pictures of inside the cabin and the surrounding woods. “She owned all of this?” Sansa could hardly believe it. She loved her Grandma, but Minisa Tully never seemed much like an outdoors kind of woman. Sansa had always assumed she inherited that trait from her.-------When her grandmother passes away and leaves Sansa her cabin and acreage - which Sansa had no idea she owned - in the small town of Blueberry Lake, Sansa goes to see it and to see if she can find out more things about her grandmother. And bringing her dog with her on her search becomes a great reason to get to know Blueberry Lake's handsome veterinarian.
Relationships: Jon Snow/Sansa Stark
Comments: 464
Kudos: 451





	1. An Introduction

**…**

**Chapter One.** An Introduction.

The funeral had gone as well as a funeral could go, Sansa Stark supposed. But wouldn’t the best funeral be not having to have a funeral at all? Still though, it had been a lovely affair. Everyone in attendance had said so and more than one person came up to Sansa at the luncheon to say how beautiful her words at her grandma’s grave in the cemetery had been.

As the guests began leaving, giving final condolences to Hoster Tully and his family, Hoster making sure that they took the flower centerpieces with them, Sansa lowered herself exhaustedly into one of the chairs at a random table. She was drained – physically and emotionally. She had been crying so much for the past week since her mom called and told her the news of Grandma Minisa – Catelyn’s mom – passing away. Sansa knew that it was coming. Grandma, unfortunately, had had pneumonia and just hadn’t been able to shake it, but still, actually hearing that she was gone – and gone forever – Sansa was devastated.

Her brothers and sister all loved Grandpa Hoster and Grandma Minisa – their mom’s parents – but it was no secret that Sansa was the closest to them. Sansa never knew why it was like that. Perhaps because she looked more Tully than her other siblings and some of the family felt that Sansa was practically a mini-Catelyn herself. Whatever the reason, Sansa being closed to her maternal grandparents was just how it had always been. Sleepovers and weekends at their house and in college, she would sometimes go see her grandparents when she wanted to get away from campus and not even tell her parents that she had visited.

When her older brother, Robb, was told of Grandma’s passing, his first question, after asking how Grandpa was, was “How’s mom and Sansa?”

And now, as the funeral attendants left the restaurant where the funeral luncheon had been, Sansa sat there and couldn’t believe that that was it. It was just… done. Her grandma was dead and gone and she was now buried and everyone had full stomachs of fish and lobster and they were just going to be moving on with their lives.

Was this how it always was after a funeral? The person was buried and then everyone went to go eat and then go home and that was it?

(Was it going to be like this when she died? Everyone would eat, take flower centerpieces and then go home to make sure they made it for the evening news on time?)

She wanted to yell that her grandma was dead and why didn’t any of them care more about it?

But that wasn’t fair, she knew. People dealt with death differently. Her sister, Arya, refused to cry in front of anyone, but Sansa didn’t doubt that Arya loved their grandma. Of course Arya loved her and was sad. Sansa had no right to claim that people weren’t sad just because they weren’t acting so openly devastated.

Sansa didn’t think she had any more tears in her, but as she sat there, thinking those thoughts, her eyes began to sting again and she closed her eyes, taking a shuddering breath. Feeling someone sit next to her, she opened her eyes and it was Robb, giving her a small smile and holding a glass out for her to take.

“Whiskey sour,” he said and she smiled faintly, taking it from him. There was also six cherries in it.

“Thanks,” she said quietly before taking the smallest sip. She hadn’t been able to eat that much at the lunch and she didn’t want to get drunk on a near-empty stomach.

Robb took a much larger gulp from his own whiskey drink. “How are you?”

Sansa nodded her head and that would have to be enough of an answer because she was sick of that question and she was sick of not having an answer for that question.

She took another sip of her drink and Robb rubbed a hand on her back as he drank from his own. She looked and saw that Catelyn and her younger brother – Edmure – were standing with their father, saying goodbye to those who left. There had been a third Tully child – Lysa, Catelyn and Edmure’s sister – but she had died years earlier. She and her husband had had one son, Robin, and after Lysa’s death, he had lived with the Stark family ever since. Robin was now with Bran and Rickon Stark, the three sitting at another table, the three playing some game that involved the salt and pepper shakers and sugar packets.

“Have you talked with Grandpa?” Robb asked.

“When?”

“He said he had something to talk with you about.”

“With me?”

Robb smiled a little. “You’re being difficult.”

Sansa actually found herself smiling more than just a small one. She actually almost felt like laughing. She shook her head and took a sip of whiskey. “Did he say what he wanted to talk with me about?”

Robb shook his head, now taking his own sip of whiskey. “It sounded like Grandma had done something for you.”

Sansa lifted her eyes and looked to her Grandpa. That didn’t seem right. Everything Grandma Minisa had had was being divided between her husband and her daughter and son. As it should have been. It didn’t sound like Grandma Minisa to show such blatant favoritism and out of her grandchildren, give something to only one instead of something to all of them.

She didn’t think Robb was wrong, but perhaps he had misunderstood what Grandpa Hoster had actually said.

She and Robb sat for a few minutes more, long enough for her to finish almost all of her drink and eat all six cherries before she left her glass on the table and stood up to go to her Grandpa. He was now at the bar with her dad, Ned, and both were getting fresh beers.

Hoster saw her first and smiled and when Ned saw his oldest daughter approaching, he smiled, too.

“I told your mom that you and her deserve a week-long nap after this,” Hoster said.

Sansa smiled and leaned into her dad as Ned put an arm around her shoulders, kissing her head. Though Hoster had done his best to help, most of the funeral arrangements had fallen onto Catelyn’s shoulders and Sansa had dove right in to help her. Hoster knew his wife, but Catelyn understood her mother’s tastes and knew what she would want – and not want – at her funeral.

“Robb said that you had something to talk with me about,” Sansa said.

“Yes, yes,” Hoster nodded and setting his beer on the bar top, he then reached into the inside pocket of his suit. There was a stapled set of folded papers and without a word or explanation, he held it out for Sansa to take.

She did so – almost hesitantly. Unfolding the papers, she saw a photocopied picture of a house – a cabin.

“Blueberry Lake,” she read the address before looking at the cabin for another moment. She then looked to her Grandpa. “What’s Blueberry Lake?”

“Your Grandma’s favorite place in the world,” Hoster had picked up his beer again and he now took a sip. “It’s about two hours north of Winterfell. A little place in the middle of nowhere that most people don’t know about.”

Sansa looked to her dad for confirmation. Ned Stark knew every square inch of the North.

“I broke down there once, years ago,” Ned said. “I think that’s where it was. Your Grandpa’s right. You only know about it if you’re from there or you got lost and wound up there by accident.”

Sansa looked back to the picture of the cabin. “Blueberry Lake,” she said then, more to herself. “I’ve never heard Grandma mention it before.”

If it was Grandma Minisa’s favorite place in the world, surely she would have said at least one thing about it in all of the countless hours Sansa had spent with her.

“That was your Grandma’s cabin – a secret only I knew about,” Hoster continued and Sansa waited, knowing that he would explain everything soon enough. “She bought it before we got married and once every few months, she would go there for a weekend. Just herself. I’ve never been.”

“Never?” Sansa frowned.

“That was her place. I have the mancave in our garage and she had Blueberry Lake.”

The other papers were more photocopies of pictures of inside the cabin and the surrounding woods. “She owned all of this?” Sansa could hardly believe it. She loved her Grandma, but Minisa Tully never seemed much like an outdoors kind of woman. Sansa had always assumed she inherited that trait from her.

“21 acres,” Hoster confirmed. “She was going to live here, but then met me and we fell in love and we settled in Riverrun, as you know. She wasn’t sure what to do with the cabin and land, but I told her to keep it. It was hers. She bought it herself. There was no reason why she shouldn’t keep it.”

“Why didn’t she ever take you or mom, Uncle Edmure and Aunt Lysa?” _Why didn’t she ever tell me?_ Sansa asked that final question silently to herself.

“She never suggested it and I never asked. Your Grandma was allowed her secrets, Sansa.”

Secrets? Grandma Minisa with her soft hands and warm smile and constant smell of cinnamon? Her Grandma didn’t have secrets. She was the best Grandma in the world who loved her grandchildren and was always telling them stories of her life and always knew everything about what was going on in their own lives. Why was this cabin and Blueberry Lake completely unmentioned though?

“It’s yours, Sansa.”

Sansa’s eyes flew up to look at her Grandpa. “What?”

Hoster looked to the papers with his eyes and then looked to Sansa again. She flipped through the other papers to the last one and sucked in a gasp when she saw. A deed and a land title. Her eyes flew to her dad next and Ned looked just as surprised as she felt. He set his own beer down on the bar so he could take the papers from her to look them over himself and Sansa looked back to her Grandpa.

“Why… why would she…” Sansa began shaking her head. “Why would Grandma leave me this? Just me? Not the others? Why would she do that? Grandpa, I can’t take it. It’s not fair to everyone else-” The words tumbled from her mouth without her even realizing half of what she was saying.

Her head was spinning. She _knew_ her grandma and her grandma just didn’t have some secret cabin in the woods in some town somewhere and went there to hide from her husband and her family and keep secrets.

That wasn’t _her_ grandma.

“Your Grandma made sure everyone got a little something, but she wanted you to have this and she made sure that I knew that. She also made sure that I knew I couldn’t let you refuse no matter what you might say.”

Sansa was still shaking her head. “Grandpa-”

“Sansa, go to Blueberry Lake yourself and see the cabin before you start up a fight with me,” Hoster said and reached out, taking one of her hands and squeezing it. “It’s yours now because your Grandma wanted you to have it. She must have thought that whatever she had there for herself, you would find it, too.”

…

A short introduction to what this story is going to be. (And the Gin Blossoms is one of my favorite bands if anyone wanted to know lol) THANK YOU!


	2. What To Do Next

…

**Chapter Two.** What To Do Next.

Sansa had always done well in school.

She studied hard and took her classes seriously and her parents never had to yell about report cards or worry about teachers contacting them. She really just loved learning. She loved history and literature and didn’t necessarily care for chemistry or algebra – though she knew both were necessary – but she never knew what she wanted to do after she was finished with her classes.

She loved to read, but she couldn’t make money, reading books. She loved to bake and sew, but she didn’t think she was the best at either in the world who could make a career out of doing one of those things. She had been playing the piano since she was seven, but again, she wasn’t some amazing concert pianist. Everything Sansa loved doing with her time weren’t things she could do to make money and earn a living.

So during her senior year of high school, she applied and was accepted to King’s Landing University; more specifically, the KLU School of Business. Her father and Robb had both gone and Sansa honestly didn’t know what else to do. She knew she had to do something though.

“Why is everything about making money?” Grandma Minisa had asked when Sansa had explained it to her.

“Because you need money to live, grandma,” Sansa told her with a smile.

“And going to business school will get that for you?”

The question made Sansa pause. “Probably,” she said with as much confidence as she could muster.

To be honest, going to business school for the next four years sounded awful to her, but… well, she had to do _something_. She had to go to college after high school because that’s what someone did; especially in her family. Her parents valued education and not going to college just wasn’t even a possibility. And Sansa loved learning so why wouldn’t she love going to college?

(Deep down, she hated the thought of going to college with absolutely no clue what she wanted to do, but she told herself that no eighteen-year-old knew what they wanted to do.)

“I’ll figure it out. I have four years,” she added, giving her grandma another smile.

Four years later, her entire family was on KLU’s campus to see Sansa walk across the stage at her graduation, receiving her business degree, all cheering and hooting and hollering for her.

“I am so proud of you, love,” Grandma Minisa said as she hugged Sansa long and tight when Sansa, still in her black graduation gown and her cap somewhere on the floor of the auditorium after having thrown it in the air, came to find her family so they could go celebrate.

Ned took the entire family to one of the fancier restaurants in downtown King’s Landing and Sansa sat between her mother and grandma, her cheeks hurting from smiling so much. She was so happy at such an accomplishment, but it was overwhelming – to just be finished with school after all of these years and now, she was expected to go out and make her own way in this world.

Most days, she still felt like she was too young to be considered an actual adult.

“So what now?” Grandma asked once their food arrived and the family dug in.

“What do you mean?” Sansa asked.

“Have you figured it out?”

“I just graduated, Grandma,” Sansa smiled at her. “Can I have at least one day to not think about it?”

“You had four years in business school to think about it, love.”

Sansa knew Grandma Minisa hadn’t necessarily understood Sansa’s enrollment in business school, but of course, she had supported her and was always there when Sansa called, needing to talk. And she knew that right now, Grandma Minisa wasn’t trying to stress her out or even upset her, but Sansa knew that she was right. She had had four years to think about things even if the past four years, Sansa felt as if she hadn’t figured a single thing out.

One of her final projects had been creating a business model for whatever business she thought could make money. Plans, loans, budgets – it was a major project that had taken nearly three months of research and preparation that had been worth nearly half of her grade. Sansa had worked exhaustively on it – creating a small coffee shop as well as an opportunity to sell her lemon bars.

The teacher hadn’t given her a bad mark. Actually, she received one of the highest marks in the class. But the teacher had let Sansa know his doubts. “Westeros already has enough coffee shops,” he told her.

And just like that – for the countless time – Sansa was reminded that what she loved couldn’t support her.

“I’ll figure it out,” Sansa told her grandma with as much confidence as she could muster.

Minisa studied her for a moment and then with a small smile, she slipped her arm around her in a sideways hug and kissed her on the head.

And then, two months later, she had passed and Sansa was in her bedroom, in her parents’ house, figuring out what to pack to take with her to Blueberry Lake; to the cabin she now, apparently, owned.

“How long are you going for?” Arya asked from where she lounged on the bed, sucking a Tootsie Roll Sucker.

“I have no idea,” Sansa shook her head from where she stood at her open closet. “I’m thinking just for the weekend. I want to be able to take a look at it and see Grandma’s cabin and what she has there.”

“ _Your_ cabin,” Arya corrected her.

My cabin, Sansa corrected herself in her head. She turned towards her sister. “Are you jealous?” She then had to ask. When they were girls, the sisters were always fighting over one thing or another and though they didn’t fight nearly as much – Sansa being away at college and Arya still at home, in high school, definitely helping – Sansa admitted that they still weren’t as close as she wished they could be.

“Not really,” Arya shrugged, always honest. “Grandma all left us a little something and I shouldn’t be surprised. You were always her favorite.”

Sansa didn’t mean to frown, but she couldn’t help herself. “Grandma loved all of us.”

“I know she did, but it’s possible to love one more than another and she definitely loved you the most.”

Sansa opened her mouth to disagree, but she actually didn’t know what she could say to that. She took a moment. She didn’t want to admit that, but there was some truth to it, wasn’t there?

“But you’re not jealous?” She asked again.

“Nope,” Arya said. “I’ll probably borrow the keys to throw a party or two.” Sansa smiled at that. “But I’m just imagining the kind of cabin Grandma Minisa would have and I’m imagining something very… stuffy.”

“She owned a secret cabin in the middle of the woods. It doesn’t sound anything like her,” Sansa pointed out, turning back towards her closet, still having no idea what to pack for a weekend to a place she had never seen.

“Still, it was _Grandma_. I bet it has lace curtains and the cabinet is full of peppermint tea.”

Sansa smiled at that, finally deciding on two different sweaters. Sweaters was always a safe bet to wear somewhere and the woods and sweaters kind of went together, didn’t they?

“Sansa,” the bedroom door – partially open – pushed open the rest of the way and Catelyn entered with Sansa’s dog, Lady, trotting at her side. Lady had been a graduation present from her parents – a beautiful gray and white Northern Inuit who had already learned that when Catelyn was cooking in the kitchen, one or two things might just happen to find their way to the floor for the multiple Stark dogs to clean up.

Lady went right to Sansa, who turned and knelt down to welcome back her dog, the animal’s tail swishing back and forth with excitement.

“Are you packed?” Catelyn asked, looking to the open – empty – bag on the bed next to Arya.

“Not at all,” Sansa shook her head, standing up again.

“I’ve packed you some food. I have no idea if mom kept that place stocked and I have no idea if Blueberry Lake even has a grocery store,” Catelyn told her.

“Mom, it’s a town two hours North,” Arya sat up, feeling the need to remind their mother of that. “It’s going to have _somewhere_ to buy groceries.”

Catelyn gave her a look. “Just because you eat hot dogs from gas stations doesn’t mean I _want_ any of my children eating food from a gas station.”

“Those hot dogs are delicious and you’re just a food snob,” Arya said, but did it with a smile.

Catelyn gave her another look – which just made Arya’s grin wider – before looking to Sansa again. “Also, I want you to take some toilet paper with you and some towels.”

“Mom, I’m sure Grandma has toilet paper,” Sansa said, taking the two sweaters to the bag, folding them before packing them away.

“And I also packed a container of dog food for Lady and Arya. Could you please go get one of the comforters from the chest in the basement. I don’t know if mom had the bed dressed.”

“Mom,” Sansa couldn’t stop from sighing. “This is Grandma Minisa. She is going to have _everything_ I will need.”

“Better to be safe than sorry. Arya, go,” Catelyn said and with a heavy sigh, Arya pulled herself from the bed and left the room to go do what her mother wanted. No one ignored an order from Catelyn Stark; not even Arya, who was, hands down, her most defiant child.

Sansa went to her dresser for a couple pairs of jeans to pack into her bag next and Catelyn sat down on the bed with a sigh. “Are you alright?” Sansa asked, sitting down next to her. Lady came up between Sansa’s knees, looking for more love and affection and Sansa rubbed her behind her ears.

“I don’t know. I miss her,” Catelyn said, barely getting the words out before her voice started trembling and her eyes grew wet with tears.

And seeing her mom about to cry, Sansa felt tears in her own eyes, too. “Me, too,” she whispered. “I’m sorry Grandma left me the cabin.”

Catelyn sniffled and looked at her. “That’s a strange thing to apologize for.”

“I just…” Sansa shook her head. “You were her daughter.” It made Sansa’s heart ache at the past tense. You _are_ her daughter. Catelyn was still Minisa’s daughter and always would be. “You should have gotten anything she had. Especially something that apparently meant so much to her.”

Catelyn was shaking her head before Sansa could even finish her sentence. She lifted her hands to Sansa’s cheeks and wiped them for her; Sansa not even realizing that tears had slipped down. “Sansa, your grandmother loved you so much. So. Much. And I know my mom. She left you her cabin for a reason.”

Sansa sniffled. “What am I supposed to do with it?”

Catelyn put her arms around her and Sansa put her arms around her, both holding one another as both had their tears slip down their cheeks. “It’s obvious that Grandma knew you would figure that out once you got there.”

Sansa didn’t know what to say to that or what to even think. If she was honest, she had a hard time believing that anyone would ever think she would figure anything out.

…

“Alright,” Ned brushed his hands off. “Gas tank is full, tire pressure is good, wiper fluid is full-”

“Dad,” Sansa gently interrupted with a smile. “It’s two hours North and I’ll be home Sunday afternoon.”

“Anything can happen in two hours, Sansa,” he reminded her as he popped open the trunk to check that the spare tire was back there; though where he thought it had gone, Sansa didn’t know and she didn’t ask.

“Come on, Lady,” Sansa beckoned, opening the back door and Lady jumped into the backseat, more than ready to go. She obviously didn’t know where they were going, but she knew she was going with Sansa and she was excited.

“You have all of the food I packed?” Catelyn asked.

“Yes, mom.”

“Toilet paper? Comforter?”

“Yes, mom. I’ll be ready for my journey to the moon where they have absolutely no stores.”

“I already have one Arya, Sansa. I don’t need another,” Catelyn said and before Sansa could say anything to that, Catelyn pulled her into a tight hug. Her arms squeezed around Sansa’s body. “Go be close to your grandmother and tell her that I said hi.”

At those words, Sansa squeezed her arms around her mom as well and closed her eyes, pressing her nose to Catelyn’s shoulders, feeling her heart both tighten and race in her chest. She hadn’t thought of it like that, but this was what this cabin was.

This cabin was her grandmother – something so close to her heart, only she knew about it – and now, Sansa would be the next person to step into it and be with her again.

She didn’t know if she was ready for that, but nothing could stop her from going.

…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Blueberry Lake and Jon in the next chapter! Thank you so much for reading and enjoying the first chapter so much.


	3. The Somewhat Classic Meet and Greet

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/27464164@N07/49778420398/in/dateposted/)

…

**Chapter Three.** The Somewhat Classic Meet and Greet.

“Interesting,” Sansa murmured to herself as she leaned forward towards the wheel, looking out the windshield as if she needed a closer look at the sign.

And by interesting, she meant strange.

EXIT 31

That was all it said. Nothing further to let a traveling by-passer know what exit 31 might hold.

Sansa liked to use the Waze app on her phone when she was going somewhere she had never been before, but when she typed in the address for her grandmother’s cabin – _her_ cabin – that had been on the papers Grandpa Hoster had given her, nothing had popped up. Waze had been unable to find the location. It had been able to find the Blueberry Lake Post Office, but not the cabin.

Thankfully, Grandma Minisa had left some directions for her as well.

And both Grandma and Waze told her to get off on exit 31. Sansa wasn’t going to question both sets of directions; it was just a bit strange that a town’s exit wouldn’t even be labeled for someone who wished to visit them.

Sansa had traveled north on N90 and then had gotten off on Route 22. And now, she took the exit ramp off for exit 31, following the bend in the road and almost immediately, thick woods were on either side of her. No one was behind her and no car was coming from the opposite direction towards her.

It suddenly felt like she – with Lady – was the only one in this world. Interesting, strange and _slightly_ creepy.

“Where in the Seven Hells are you taking me?” Sansa asked quietly, out loud, to Grandma Minisa.

From the back, Lady left her back paws on the backseat and put her front ones on the middle console, looking ahead through their front windshield, obviously wondering the same thing as Sansa. Leaving one hand on the steering wheel, Sansa lifted her other hand and managed to give Lady a scratch.

“It’ll be fine,” Sansa assured her dog. “We’ll get to the cabin. _Soon_. And we’ll do some exploring and mom has packed us enough food for a month so we’ll get settled and enjoy our weekend. How does that sound?”

Lady’s tongue rolled out of her mouth as if smiling at that and Sansa let out a laugh, returning both hands to the steering wheel. She glanced down to her phone and the Waze directions. Apparently, the Blueberry Lake Post Office would be in just two more miles. This place having a post office was a good sign. That means it had to be _some_ semblance of a town. Maybe they even had a grocery store.

And Sansa would be sure to take a picture of it and message it to her mom.

There was a little over one more mile to go now to the post office, but she was still surrounded by thick woods. Where was the town? And how did her grandmother ever find this town in the first place?

Suddenly, Lady let out a bark, the pup having thought she saw something in the trees.

_WOOF!_

Sansa screamed at the suddenness and surprise of it – and considering it had been right in her ear with Lady’s head still next to hers – and she jumped in her seat. She felt the car move – jerking to the side – and she quickly tightened her hands around the steering wheel to get it under control, but it was too late.

The car was heading off the road now and Sansa slammed on the breaks. The car jerked to a stop, the front half of the car pointing downwards in a slight ditch alongside the road.

Sansa felt her heart pounding in her chest and she sat there for a moment, panting heavily, trying to catch her breath. Thank Gods there were no other cars on the road with her. That could have led to a horrible car crash.

After a minute or two of her heart no longer feeling like it was going to beat right out of her chest, Sansa took a final deep breath and then turned in her seat. Lady, wisely, had placed herself back in the backseat and was now looking at Sansa with the utmost innocence.

Sansa just gave her dog a look. “Was that necessary?” She asked her. Lady cocked her head and didn’t answer.

With a sigh, Sansa moved the gear shift to reverse and gently hit the gas pedal. She could hear the tires moving and the engine encouraging the car to move, but… nothing moved.

“Oh, come on,” she murmured and after a moment, she hit the gas pedal again; a little harder this time and the engine roaring in response. Still, the tires spun, but didn’t move the car. She shifted again into park and pulled her foot from the gas pedal. Picking up her phone, she got out of the Waze app and went to her contacts. “You’re lucky you’re so cute,” she said to Lady as she found the number for AAA, which Ned paid for his whole family to have.

But then her eyes caught the top of her phone.

“What?” She breathed. “No…”

Quickly, she unbuckled her seat belt and turning the car off, taking her keys from the ignition, Sansa shoved her door open and stepped out into the grass. Lady thought that was a signal that she could get out, too, and climbed from the back, over Sansa’s seat and hopped out, too. Her nose was immediately planted to the ground as Sansa stepped into the road, still staring down at her phone.

“Where the Hell am I?” She asked out loud.

No bars? What the Hell place didn’t have cell signal? Where did her Grandma _take_ her?

“Okay. It’s fine. It’s. Fine.” Sansa told herself – over and over – as she went back to the car and got her purse and Lady’s leash. She hit the locks, making sure the car’s alarm was set. “Lady!” She called out and the dog came trotting over, sitting patiently as Sansa hooked the leash to her collar. “Okay, so we’re about a mile away. We are going to walk to town and hopefully, they have some sort of phone that I can use.”

Lady’s tongue panted from her mouth in agreement and Sansa gave her a nod.

“Now, I’m not blaming you,” Sansa said to her dog as they began to walk up the road, Sansa taking one look over her shoulder at her poor car, stuck in a ditch. “I know that you’re a dog and dogs bark when they see something, but maybe barking right in my ear as I was driving wasn’t the _best_ time to bark? Let’s ponder that for a moment,” Sansa suggested as Lady trotted at her side, her tongue panting from her mouth. “Think on when it is a good time to bark.”

It was quiet as they walked. SO quiet. The two lane road certainly had no traffic and the woods grew on either side. Birds chirped in tree branches and the green leaves provided a thick canopy that nearly made it all seem so dark. Thankfully, the road was open to the sky so the sun could shine down, but still, looking into the darkened trees, Sansa felt a shiver. She didn’t know why. She wasn’t scared. She really wasn’t. It was just the juxtaposition of the sun shining on her and then the woods next to her being dark.

“Come along, Lady,” Sansa said, refusing to admit to herself that even she was a little frightened. She picked up the pace and Lady easily remained at her side.

Suddenly, the woods cleared away and the first thing Sansa saw was a sign – large and wood on the side of the road. _WELCOME TO BLUEBERRY LAKE – YOUR NEW HOME_

There was a painting of a large lake surrounded by trees and blueberries bordering the sign. Despite the chill she had just felt walking here, Sansa saw the sign and she now found herself smiling. Something about the sign, it made her feel warm again.

Is that what her Grandma Minisa felt when she stumbled upon this sign for the first time? Was this the same sign that her grandmother had seen so many years ago? Maybe it was a different sign, but the name had been the same and Grandma Minisa read “Blueberry Lake” and decided that this was a town to stop it.

“Come along, Lady,” Sansa said again and she and Lady continued on, walking past the sign and heading further up the road. A building, a little ways away, grew closer and Sansa saw that this was the Blueberry Lake Post Office.

Stepping closer though, she saw that there was a sign on the door – “Closed for Lunch”.

Sansa’s brow furrowed a little. It seemed a little early for lunch. Maybe it was closed for _brunch_. She couldn’t blame a single person in this world closing if brunch was involved. There was a man standing at the blue post box on the sidewalk, a stack of envelopes in his hand, and he was checking every one before putting it into the box.

She looked down to her phone. Still no bars. Seriously. Was Blueberry Lake in a black hole?

With a sigh, she looked to see what other businesses she could possibly go into and ask to use their phone. There was a diner directly across the street – simply called DINER.

“Shit.”

She turned her head at the word.

The man was still at the post box, but now, one of the envelopes he had been holding had gotten away from him and the wind was carrying it away. She hoped it wasn’t anything important as she brought her foot down on it as it made its way, fluttering past her.

She bent down to pick it up, Lady sniffing at it curiously, and she lifted her head to see the man approaching.

Oh goodness, _this_ man.

Sansa suddenly felt like her throat had closed up. She would have never expected a man like this to be in a place like this. This man was honestly the most attractive man she had ever seen; and she had been in King’s Landing for four years where attractive people of both sexes seemed to flock.

But none of them compared to this man here, in the middle of nowhere, in Blueberry Lake. Who was this man?

Not that it mattered, Sansa quickly reminded herself. She was _not_ here for a man with black – curly – hair and a black beard and who looked incredibly fit under the black sweater he was wearing. She was here for her grandma.

(Had her grandma known this man? Had this man known her grandma?)

He smiled as he neared her. “Thank you.”

“I’m sorry if I got my footprint on it,” she smiled as well, handing him the envelope, holding onto Lady’s leash a little tighter as she began sniffing at the handsome man’s jeans. “Lady,” Sansa said, pulling gently on the leash.

“It’s a birthday card for my stepbrother so you could spit on it, if you like,” the handsome man smiled at her.

And when he smiled, the corners of his eyes crinkled.

Was her stomach really flipping at eye crinkles?

“Well, hey there, girl,” he smiled, crouching down in front of Lady. Lady was happy for the attention as the handsome man scratched her behind the ears. “You are a beautiful one, aren’t you?”

Lady swept her tail at the compliment.

“About three months?” He asked.

“She is,” Sansa nodded.

The man then lifted his head to look up at Sansa, still smiling. But it faded as he looked at her. Sansa desperately wanted to lift her hand to her hair. Did she look that bad? She was fine when she left the house and she had only been driving for two hours. She shouldn’t have looked _that_ disheveled.

“Are you lost?” He asked.

“I’m sorry?”

He stood up again, shaking his head slightly. “I just meant… you’re a new person in Blueberry Lake. The only option would be is that you’re horribly lost.”

“Oh! That makes sense.” Sansa’s eyes widened as she heard herself. “Not that no one would come to this town unless they were horribly lost. It’s such a beautiful town. The… diner especially looks exceptional.” The handsome man looked at her, a smile growing across his face, while Sansa felt her own catch on fire. “But you’re right. Not that I’m lost, but that I’m new here.”

“I know I would remember you if you had been here before,” the man said. It was now his cheek’s turns to look noticeably pink and he glanced away from her.

Sansa pursed her lips together, wanting to smile, but also not wanting it obvious that she was pleased with that.

“Oh!” She then exclaimed and the man looked back to her. She shook her head. “My car. I forgot… I was in an accident. Well, not an accident. It was sort of a barking incident that caused me to drive my car into a ditch.”

He blinked at her. “And… you forgot that your car was in a ditch?”

“I didn’t forget. It just… slipped my mind for half a second.” _Because of you, you handsome bastard._ Sansa sighed and it looked now as if he was trying to keep from smiling. “And what is with this?” She demanded, taking her cell phone and holding it up for the man to see. “What kind of place doesn’t have cell service? Is the entire town filled with serial killers?”

“You found us out,” the man nodded solemnly. “Now we’re going to have to kill you and dispose of your body. Thankfully, we’re surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of acres of woods so it will make ever finding you again _extremely_ difficult.”

“It just seems a little weird, that’s all.”

“That you happened to get lost in a town of serial killers?”

“That there’s no cell service.”

“The town has actively protested a cell tower being built for the past eight years. A lot of us moved here to escape from things. Not bring those things here with us.”

Sansa blinked at him as his words as they settled in her mind and for a moment – or two – she could do nothing, but look at him. _A lot of us moved here to escape from things_.

Grandma Minisa… was that her reason for coming here? And if it was, what things would she want to escape from and forget?

…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you!


	4. Familiar Eyes

…

**Chapter Four.** Familiar Eyes.

Edd Tollett of Tollett Towing easily pulled the car from the ditch and returned it to its rightful place on the road and the beautiful woman kept trying to push money into his hand.

“Stop,” Edd frowned at her. “If this was a twenty car pileup, then yeah, I would charge for a tow, but I don’t feel right charging idiots who drive into a ditch on their own.”

The beautiful woman frowned at him. “I’m not an idiot.”

“So you saw a ghost then? That caused you to drive off the road?” Edd wondered.

“And I don’t have hallucinations either,” her frown deepened. “I already told you that my dog barked in my ear.” Edd looked down at the dog – puppy – who was standing at her owner’s side. He then looked back to the woman with his doubt clear on his face. She sighed. “So, you don’t believe me with that, but you _would_ believe me if I hallucinated to seeing apparitions in the road?”

“Don’t know about apparitions,” Edd shrugged as he unhooked the tow truck from the back end of her car. “But seeing ghosts? Maybe.”

The beautiful woman murmured something under her breath and looked down to her dog, who swept her tail and looked up at her with her tongue hanging from her mouth.

Jon knew he was being shallow as Hell. He _knew_ it and didn’t need anyone other than himself to point that out. This woman might very well be the worst person in the world and Jon was judging her solely on her looks. He knew that, but God damn. She really was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

What he said to her was true. Nobody just showed up in Blueberry Lake unless they were horribly lost; especially someone who looked like this woman did.

She looked like how Jon imagined Minisa Tully to look when the elderly woman was when she was younger, but Jon hadn’t told this woman that. The name or comparison wouldn’t mean anything to her. And though Minisa had been in her seventies and her hair had been gray, Jon had seen pictures of the woman when she was younger and these two shared the exact same shade of red hair. The same blue eyes as well.

“Is there a place in town to get coffee?” The woman asked, drawing Jon’s attention back to her and Edd.

“The diner,” Edd nodded as he grabbed a rag from his back pocket to wipe his hands.

“No other place than the diner?”

Jon and Edd both looked at her and then looked at one another.

Edd was the only one to speak of what they were both thinking because that was just the kind of person Edd was.

“If you want something with foam, you’re going to want to get back on Route 22,” he told her. His tone wasn’t necessarily biting. It wasn’t at all. It was just Edd and the words he didn’t say were quite clear.

_You’re not welcome in Blueberry Lake_.

The beautiful woman stiffened and frowned at both men, hearing the message loud and clear. “What a nice place this is.”

Jon stepped forward suddenly; as if her words reached across the few feet between them and electrocuted him. “I’m sorry. _We’re_ sorry. We just are used to outsiders coming here, lost, and making their opinions about our town pretty obvious.”

The woman blinked at him and he could see her fingers visibly tightening around her dog’s leash. “So insulting me is supposed to give me a favorable opinion of you?” She wondered.

Jon glanced back to Edd, who was looking at him, obviously waiting for Jon’s answer to that. Jon wondered if Edd, one of his closest friends, was able to read Jon’s mind in regards to this woman. Was Edd having the same thoughts? Edd was married, but married people could still honestly admit when someone other than their spouse was handsome or beautiful.

Jon looked back to the woman. Knowing her name was a need at this point. “I’m sorry,” he told her. “We both are. And welcome to Blueberry Lake. I mean that.”

“We both do,” Edd added even though he said that with his customary frown – his resting face – so the woman might not be so inclined to believe him.

“I’m Jon and this is Edd,” Jon said, looking at her, almost holding this breath, waiting for her answer; if she was going to give one to him.

And she seemed to hesitate, talking to herself in her mind. Her fingers tightened more around the leash. “Sansa.”

Sansa, Jon immediately repeated the name to himself. Sansa.

“Sansa Tully?” Edd spoke up.

Sansa gasped so sharply and took a step backwards, her eyes wide.

Jon had been so busy just saying her name in his mind, he hadn’t connected the obvious dot.

“Sansa… Sansa Stark,” she said as she shook her head. “My grandmother…” she sounded out of breath as if the words themselves were the most difficult she had to speak.

“Minisa Tully,” Jon finished for her.

Now, she began nodding her head, looking back and forth at the two. “You knew my grandmother?”

“Everyone in Blueberry Lake knew her. We all loved her,” Jon gave her a small smile.

Sansa’s eyes grew visibly wet. “Were you… was anyone from town at the funeral?”

Jon gave her a small smile. “Almost everyone. We were there for the viewing hours.”

She looked at him for another moment. “There were so many people there. I don’t even remember most of the people that came to see her.”

“Your grandma was popular,” Edd nodded. “But we didn’t see you either so we’re all even with each other.”

Sansa began to frown as she fell quiet, clearly thinking of Edd’s words. “I… I wasn’t there the whole time. I had to go home and lay down. I hadn’t been eating…” she didn’t finish and neither Jon or Edd expected her to. She exhaled a deep – shaky – breath. “My grandmother left me her cabin.”

“Well, then, I’m definitely not taking any money for getting Minisa’s granddaughter out of a ditch,” Edd said. With that, he climbed back into his tow truck. He started the engine and both Jon and Sansa stepped off to the side. Edd stuck his head out the open window. “Welcome to Blueberry Lake,” he said to her with a head nod before he steered clear of them and headed down the road, heading back to town.

“He was my ride,” Jon grumbled, frowning after the tow truck.

Maybe Edd _had_ been able to read his mind and this was his way of helping Jon out.

“I can drive you back,” Sansa then said – quietly – her mind sounding a million miles away.

“I’d appreciate it,” he smiled at her, but she was turning away from him and hadn’t seen it.

She opened the back door and the dog jumped into the back seat. Sansa then got behind the steering wheel and Jon walked around, getting in on the passenger side. He smiled as the dog instantly put her front paws up on the middle console so her head was between them.

“What’s her name?”

“Lady.” Sansa returned her key to the ignition and turned the car on. Jon reached up and scratched Lady behind one of her ears as Sansa pulled away from the gravel curb of the road and began heading back towards town. “Did you know my grandma well?” She asked.

“I like to think I did. Blueberry Lake has Scrabble every Saturday night at the rec center and I was often at the same table with her. We all talked about more than just what counted as a word.”

He looked to Sansa and saw the faintest smile across her face. “I’m not that good at Scrabble.”

“Me, neither,” Jon smiled. “I think that’s why she wanted me at her table. She knew she could always beat me.”

The faint smile was still across her face and she didn’t say anything. It was clear to Jon that she was remembering something. Maybe she played Scrabble with her grandma, too.

Jon didn’t mean to be creepy. That really wasn’t his intention. But Sansa _Stark_ truly was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen and now knowing that this was Minisa’s Sansa, he knew she wasn’t the worst person in the world. If she was anything like her grandmother, Sansa hadn’t a single terrible bone in her body.

“I didn’t even know about this place until my grandpa told me that my grandma had left me her cabin,” Sansa began to speak and Jon looked at her with his full attention. “I don’t know why she never mentioned it to me.”

Jon wasn’t going to begin to explain a woman to her own granddaughter; especially when he knew that this was a woman that he – and everyone in town – only knew one side of.

“I’m sure your grandma had her reasons,” Jon said, hoping he didn’t sound like a complete idiot.

“Yes…” Sansa mused quietly. She passed the Blueberry Lake welcome sign and pulled into the post office parking lot. “What was it you said?” She asked as she put the car into park. “Everyone here is escaping from something?”

“Well, not everyone, but there is an appeal to this place. Things just move differently here. Just landlines. Shitty wi-fi connections. Not always knowing what’s going on in the news. It’s a freedom in a sense. You either love it or it drives you absolutely crazy.”

Sansa was looking at him, listening to him, and Minisa had had a family picture in the cabin, but it had been taken a few years earlier. Still, Jon remembered the picture now and he looked at Sansa now and he wondered why he hadn’t been able to recognize those blue eyes immediately.

“Your grandma would talk about you,” Jon then said.

Sansa went completely still and Jon was almost tempted to lift his fingers to her throat; to try and find a pulse and make sure that she was still breathing.

“What would she say?”

“I’m a little disappointed your wings are missing,” Jon smiled a little.

“My wings?”

“Well, according to your grandma, you were practically an angel.”

“Stop.” Her cheeks turned pink. “She didn’t say that.”

“She did,” Jon’s smile grew and as Sansa looked at him, she began to smile as well. “She loved you. That was obvious to anyone. She loved all of her grandkids.”

“She did,” Sansa agreed and lowered her eyes, looking to her hands. She took a moment and Jon knew that she was going to start crying, but she was trying to not do so – not while he was there.

Jon opened his door. “Thank you for the ride, Sansa. Do you need help to find your way?”

The question made her lift her head to look at him. “Do I need help to find my way?” She repeated and she looked at him as if she had seen him before and was trying to figure out where. She studied him; memorized him. She then shook her head. “No, thank you. I have directions.”

He nodded and pulled himself out. He tried to think of something else to say, but he didn’t know what. Maybe he shouldn’t say anything. He should let her get on her way and his practice had been closed long enough. He had just needed to mail some things and now it was time to get back. He had appointments all day and none of those appointments included following Minisa’s granddaughter around like some damn stalker.

He had joked with her that he was a serial killer. He didn’t want her to begin to believe that there was truth to it.

He looked to her one last time. “Welcome to Blueberry Lake, Sansa,” Jon said – wanting to say her name one more time just because he could.

Sansa nodded and swallowed thickly and Jon gave her a small smile before he closed his door behind him. She didn’t drive away immediately and Jon began walking from the post office back down the sidewalk towards his veterinary practice. It was just up ahead and he could see Mrs. Conroy already arriving, with a carrying case. Jon knew that inside the case, it was Mrs. Conroy’s yellow-bellied slider turtle, Wayne.

She saw him coming and she waved at him, Jon lifting his hand in a wave in return. He had to get his mind back to work, but even as he thought that, Jon couldn’t help, but look over his shoulder, back to the post office parking lot.

Sansa’s car was still sitting there and he told himself that Minisa’s granddaughter or not, she was still a complete stranger and it wasn’t his place to go back and see if she was alright. He was just her grandmother’s Scrabble partner. In the grander scheme of things, that didn’t make him anyone – especially to Sansa.

…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I usually write general outlines for my stories, but this is one where I'm flying by the seat of my pants, if I'm being honest lol. After this Jon POV chapter, I think I just might write this story from Sansa's POV. A HUGE THANK YOU to everyone reading, commenting and enjoying this one so far.


	5. The First Card

…

**Chapter Five.** The First Card.

It was like a dream – if Sansa had dreamt about acres of woods and a cabin in the middle of them that she now owned. Her grandmother’s directions were quite easy to follow. Drive through the town of Blueberry Lake and on Dirt Road – the road was actually named Dirt Road according to the street sign posted on the corner – take a right. Follow for almost two miles until the end. And at the end of the one lane dirt road, cutting through the woods – thick all around her – there was the cabin.

The trees had opened into a small clearing around the house and on the other side, there were none at all. When Sansa – with Lady hopping out after her – left the car, she saw why. The actual body of water of Blueberry Lake was large; much, much larger than Sansa admitted to first thinking it would be. And her grandmother’s cabin – _her_ cabin – was built right alongside side a small portion of it. The water shimmered under the bright sun and Sansa noted that down the slightest slope of ground, there was a wooden dock that led out a few feet over the water.

Lady trotted after her as Sansa walked down the slope and then across the dock to stand on the end of it. Looking around, she saw that the entire lake was surrounded by woods and she could see cabins dotting along every once in a while; miles between them, not many, but perhaps just enough.

Sansa stood on that dock, feeling the sun warm her skin and listening to the gentle laps of the water, rocking back and forth along the shore, and she felt tears beginning to build in her eyes. How many times had her grandmother stood on this dock, in this very spot, hearing what Sansa was listening to now?

Why hadn’t her grandmother ever brought her here? Why hadn’t she brought _any_ of her family here with her? Sansa would have loved to share this with her. Sansa had never considered herself an outdoors person, but this place was beautiful and Sansa would have loved to see it with her grandmother, who, apparently, had loved this place more than any other in this world.

And now, this place was hers so somehow, Grandma Minisa had known that Sansa would have loved it.

She heard a motor and turning her head, far away on the water, to her right, she could see a small motorboat hopping along, not going that fast, and she could see someone steering it. They were too far away to discern if it was a man or woman. Sansa wondered if grandma had had a boat; if she knew how to steer a boat.

“Come on, Lady.”

Sansa turned and walked back up the small dock, towards the cabin once more. Lady walked with her though the dog’s snout was glued to the ground, accosted with all sorts of new smells. Sansa would have to take her for a walk through _their_ woods and get them both acquainted with their new settings.

Taking the key Grandpa Hoster had given her, Sansa climbed the two steps of the front porch. The cabin was light wood and the front door was green. There was a porch swing at the end the front porch and Sansa found herself staring at it for a moment. She wasn’t sure why, but looking at it now, moving just slightly in the faint breeze, she felt tears in her eyes once again. How many times had her grandma sat on that porch swing?

Standing there, staring at it, Sansa could almost see Minisa sitting there now.

She exhaled a deep breath. Was she going to see her grandmother everywhere inside? She expected to. Was she prepared for that – mentally and emotionally? She didn’t know if she would ever be, but she was here and she wasn’t going to turn away.

With another inhale and exhale of a deep breath, Sansa looked back to the green front door and slid the key into the lock. For half a second, she wondered if the key would actually work. But of course it did and the door unlocked and pushed open easily. Sansa took a single step inside as Lady pushed her way in and showed no difficulty in trotting into the room, her nose planted to the floor, now smelling all of these new scents.

Sansa smelled her grandmother. Cinnamon. Her grandmother had always smelled like cinnamon and the fragrance hung in the air now. Not overpowering, but a whiff to tease her nose nostrils and it made her eyes sting with tears.

There was a small entry space. Minisa had a mirror hanging on one wall and a door was on the other side. Sansa opened it and saw that her grandmother had three coats hanging in there – a yellow raincoat, a heavier black coat and a light red windbreaker. On the floor, a pair of her boots was neatly placed. It even smelled like cinnamon inside of the closet.

The entry spilled into the large room that was both the living room and the kitchen. Looking up, Sansa saw the tall ceiling and the loft above that was the bedroom, she assumed.

Sansa almost smiled. Arya was right. Grandma Minisa did have lace curtains at the windows. The furniture was worn – in shades of warm browns and blues – but looked like the kind of furniture a person would sit in and have difficulty rising from again from being too comfortable.

There was a fireplace across from the brown couch and Sansa saw the framed photos displayed there. Sansa went to see that grandma had pictures on display – a picture of her and Hoster, one of the Minisa and Hoster with their three children, and then various pictures of her grandchildren. The picture on the end was of a younger Minisa holding a toddler Lysa in her arms, the mother holding her daughter close and smiling so happily as Lysa was in the middle of a gurgle, pointing a finger to the camera.

Sansa hadn’t known her Aunt Lysa that well despite she being her mom’s only sister. From what she gathered, Lysa hadn’t sounded like the kindest woman in the world, but from the stories Catelyn would sometimes tell of her childhood that involved Uncle Edmure and Aunt Lysa, it also sounded like Lysa hadn’t always been like that.

Despite all of her time spent with her grandmother, Sansa had never asked about Aunt Lysa and Minisa had never spoken of her. Maybe that was why Sansa had never brought it up. Minisa had not brought Lysa up first. Minisa would look at Robin sometimes and she would seem to get so sad and she would just hug him for a few prolonged minutes, lost to her thoughts, and Robin seemed to understand because he would let her hug him for as long as she needed.

Sansa looked at the picture of mother and daughter now and she smiled despite the familiar sting in her eyes.

She should have asked her grandmother about her aunt. She should ask her mother about her sister.

All of the walls were of the same light wood as the exterior of the cabin and the kitchen cabinets were the same. Lady was in the kitchen area, clearing sniffing the warm tan-tiled floor for food, and Sansa went after her. She paused and then with a smile, she began opening cabinets. She knew it and she would be sure to tell her mom. Grandma Minisa _did_ have food in her cabinets. The refrigerator was empty, she noted, but that just smart on her grandma’s part; not knowing when she would be here and not wanting things to go bad and go to waste.

She should have asked that man, Jon, about Blueberry Lake’s possible grocery stores.

She opened another cabinet and found a plastic bowl with a green ivy border around the rim. Sansa filled it with water from the sink and then set it down, Lady immediately helping herself to it.

On the counter between the kitchen and living room, Sansa saw a white envelope, her name written on the front. She moved to it immediately and picked it up. It was much thicker than she had been expecting and turning it over, she carefully pulled back the flap. There was a stack of index cards inside and a piece of notebook paper folded around it. Sansa took that first and opened it, her eyes immediately landing upon her grandma’s elegant script.

And sure enough, just seeing the letter addressed to her, she sniffled as tears flooded her eyes.

_My Dearest Sansa –_

_Welcome home! I hope you love it here as much as I did and you are as happy here as I had always been. There were times I wanted to tell you about this cabin and Blueberry Lake and at the same time, I knew since you went away to college that I would be leaving all of this to you and I wanted you to be surprised._

_Surprised?_

_When I first arrived in Blueberry Lake so many years ago, I was your age. A young woman with no idea what I was going to do with myself in this big world, but then I found this cabin and this town and this lake and I felt like I was coming home after being away for the first twenty-two years of my life._

_I am so proud of you, my love, but I know that, despite the degree you worked so hard to earn, you still aren’t sure of which direction to turn to next. I only hope I can help you with some of those decisions. Decisions you_ WANT _to make and not decisions you feel you must make because it’s what people are supposed to do._

_I have made you a stack of index cards – each with a number on them. Please read them in order. A card a day. Don’t skip ahead. I obviously won’t know if you do, but I hope that you will do this correctly. You were always the one of my grandchildren to follow the rules and I’m expecting you now, too._

_I love you very much, Sansa, and there was still so much I wanted to talk with you about and I wish I could have seen the woman you would grow to become and the life you would make for yourself. I might not be around any longer, but I know that you are going to be spectacular._

_Love always, Grandma Minisa_

Sansa had to take a moment, absolutely bawling now, and she went to the roll of paper towels on the counter, ripping a piece away so she could blow her nose.

She then returned to the note and the index cards. She looked to the stack. The top card had a large “1” on the front of it. Turning it over, Sansa saw her grandmother’s handwriting once more.

_WELCOME TO BLUBERRY LAKE! WELCOME HOME!_

_Now, you must do what I always did in the warmer months when I came here for a weekend._

_I want you to strip yourself to your bra and underwear, run down to the dock and jump into the lake._

Sansa read the words and let out a surprised laugh.

Grandma? Her grandma would strip down and go swimming?

She laughed again. She couldn’t possibly do that. What if someone was watching?

Well…

So what if someone was watching? A bra and underwear were the same as a bikini and this was what her grandma wanted her to do. It was absolutely insane, but Sansa couldn’t tell Grandma Minisa no. Obviously, these index cards were important to her and Sansa didn’t want to fail her on the very first one.

Still, Sansa felt her heart beginning to pound as she first took off her shoes and then began undressing right there in the kitchen. She took a few deep breaths, telling herself that she was going to do this. If her grandma would do this when she got to Blueberry Lake, then Sansa would certainly do it, too.

Once in her bra and underwear, she looked to Lady.

“Are you coming?” She asked and the dog swept her tail back and forth, smiling up at her.

Stepping outside, Sansa shivered and her eyes immediately began to look around at all of the trees as if she expected a thousand people to suddenly pop out and watch her. But it was just her and birds chirping in the branches of the trees above her head.

Taking a deep breath, her heart still pounding, Sansa ran down the steps and then down the slope, Lady barking excitedly. She wished Arya could see her now. Arya always called Sansa the responsible one and the responsible one did NOT strip down to her underwater and go jump into a lake. But that was what she certainly was doing now.

Sansa ran down the dock and with a shout, she leapt – weightless in the air for just a second – before she came splashing down into the water.

The world went silent around her as she was buried beneath the water – warm from the sun shining, but still refreshing against her skin. It was warmer than she thought it would be because the breeze blowing was cool.

When Sansa kicked upwards and her head popped above the water, she breathed again and let out a laugh as she looked to her dog, Lady standing at the edge of the dock, barking excitedly.

“You were supposed to jump in with me, silly girl,” Sansa laughed.

Lady barked again, the puppy’s tail still sweeping back and forth, but she remained cemented to the dock.

Sansa tilted her head upwards to look at the endless blue sky and the brightly burning sun.

_Welcome home_ , she thought to herself and the smile stayed across her lips.

…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of you have mentioned "Hallmark Movie" and I will say that that is definitely going to be the feel of this story. Who's ready for the second card from Grandma Minisa and Saturday night Scrabble? And that means that we will be seeing Jon again - as well as start meeting some of the other townspeople. THANK YOU for reading!


	6. The Second Card

…

**Chapter Six.** The Second Card.

“Grandma has toilet paper,” were the first words out of Sansa’s mouth as soon as Catelyn picked up the phone.

“And a comforter?”

Sansa could hear her mom smiling from the other end and it made Sansa smile, too.

“A comforter, toilet paper _and_ food,” Sansa said, almost laughing.

After floating in the lake for a bit, Sansa pulled herself out and unpacked her car in two trips – still in just her bra and underwear. She seemed to have gotten her initial worry of someone being hidden in the woods, spying on her. She then went inside and found the bathroom – on the ground level. She had laughed when she opened the small towel closet that was built into the wall and saw the bottom shelf, fully stocked with toilet paper.

There was a bear-claw bathtub in the bathroom and Sansa never knew why, but she always loved bear-claw bathtubs. She had never had one or even used one, but she loved looking at pictures from “way back when” when they had been so popular in homes. Just seeing that her grandmother had had one, Sansa had been so happy and she also hadn’t found herself to be surprised.

If she loved bear-claw bathtubs, it only made sense to her that her grandmother had loved them as well.

Grandma Minisa had quite a collection of shampoos, conditioners and body washes and Sansa took a long, steaming hot shower to wash the lake water off – she had no idea how clean that water actually was, but it wasn’t _too_ bad if Grandma Minisa went jumping in it all of the time as well. Finally stepping out, she wrapped a fluffy white towel around herself and turned on the ceiling vent she had forgotten to turn on. There was a laundry hamper next to the sink counter and Sansa dumped her bra and underwear in there, peeking inside as she did.

For a brief moment, she had thought something of Minisa’s would still be inside, waiting to be washed, and then she felt disappointment when Sansa saw that the basket was empty.

Still only wearing a towel, letting her hair airdry for a bit, Sansa had gone upstairs into the lofted bedroom. The window against the back wall overlooked the tall trees outside and sparkling lake. The bed was a four-post bed with a mint green goose-down comforter spread neatly across it with pillows encased in crisp white pillowcases. There was a chest of drawers across from it and an oval mirror hanging above them. Sansa smiled faintly to herself as she ran her hand lightly across the surface, seeing a perfume bottle – cinnamon, to no surprise – a comb, and a soft bristle brush.

There was a framed photograph of a much younger Grandpa Hoster and another of the couple together, taken outside at what looked like a picnic. Sansa smiled, leaning in closer for a better look. People were often telling Sansa how much she looked like her grandmother and no matter how many pictures she saw of the younger Minisa, it was something Sansa always liked seeing for herself.

Opening the top drawer, Sansa saw that it was empty. That made her frown, her brow furrowed. Why would it already be empty? Grandpa Hoster had said that he had never been here so Sansa knew that he hadn’t been the one to clean it out. But if it wasn’t him, who would have?

She opened the second drawer and found that that was empty as well. As was the bottom drawer.

Where had all of Minisa’s things gone? Why were there some of her things here, but not others? Had Minisa cleaned out these drawers? Had she known that she wasn’t going to be getting better and had decided to get ahead of clearing out her cabin for Sansa?

That wasn’t a thought Sansa could even entertain at the moment. Her grandmother, knowing that she was dying, came up here to rid her things from her favorite place in the world? But why had she left the coats in the downstairs closet, but then empty this dresser? It didn’t make sense and Sansa wondered if her grandmother was trying to tell her something. But what could it possibly be?

The shower had felt so good and refreshing and had lifted Sansa, but now, imagining her grandmother boxing away her things and dropping them off at Goodwill or somewhere else, knowing she wouldn’t need them again, it made Sansa’s chest ache so intensely, she had to sit down on the edge of the bed, trying to keep breathing.

  
Lady saw Sansa sitting on the bed and took that as permission for her to do the same thing. Sansa did her best to take deep breaths – focusing on inhaling and exhaling. She lifted a hand to Lady and focused on petting the dog rather than breaking down – again. Perhaps eating something would help, but she really wasn’t hungry. She hadn’t been hungry much at all lately.

It took her a few minutes more of petting Lady and focusing on her breathing and listening to the birds chirping outside for Sansa to start to feel her chest loosen and her breath return to normal once again.

On the nightstand next to the bed, there was a lamp, a clock and a phone that was a light shade of blue. Sansa smiled. Her mom still had a phone like this though hers was pink. A princess phone, it was called, and Sansa had always loved her mom’s – even as landlines began to disappear and everyone had a cell phone. But with Blueberry Lake having no cell service whatsoever, Sansa imagined that everyone had actual telephones.

“What is it like there?” Catelyn asked once they discussed Sansa’s drive up there.

(Sansa had NOT told her mother about the whole ditch incident. Even though she and Lady were both perfectly fine, she knew her parents and they would be insane with worry nonetheless.)

Sansa took a moment to think over the question and despite the empty drawers, she thought of the index cards, the bear-claw bathtub, the smell of cinnamon and her grandmother being everywhere in this cabin.

She smiled into the phone. “It’s wonderful,” she answered easily and truthfully.

…

Sansa had thought that being in a completely new place, she and Lady both would have difficulty sleeping and she woke up the next morning, surprised that she had slept through the entire night – deeply – and Lady had slept on the bed with her without jumping down.

The sun was pouring in through the lace curtains, warming the rooms already, and the birds were now chirping their morning songs outside. Sansa laid there for a moment, looking up to the ceiling, wondering how many times her grandmother had laid here, exactly like this, staring up at the ceiling.

Closing her eyes, she exhaled a deep breath and a smile slowly spread across her lips.

Day two in Blueberry Lake and Sansa would now see what else her grandmother had in mind for her.

“Come on, Lady,” Sansa said, sitting up, and the dog immediately did so as well. “Time to start the day.”

Lady let out a bark and jumped down from the bed as Sansa pushed the warm comforter from off of her. Despite the cold of the North, Sansa always preferred to sleep in just tee-shirts. She would go to the store and buy a pack of men’s shirts in a much larger size so they hung on her like any nightgown and in Blueberry Lake, it was no different. She didn’t feel the chill though. The sun really was doing a magnificent job.

Stopping in the bathroom for herself, she then went to the front door of the cabin, her hand pausing on the knob as she looked to Lady.

“I’m not chasing after you so if you run off, you’re stuck out there unless you can find your way back,” she informed the dog and she knew her Lady was smart enough to know exactly what she was saying.

Lady now looked up at her with her tongue hanging out and her tail quickly swishing back and forth. Sansa smiled and bending down, kissed her on the head.

“Alright, get to it.” Sansa unlocked the front door so Lady could run out.

Sansa took a step out onto the porch to watch Lady do her business, but to also look at the woods in the morning. It amazed her just how quiet it was – except for the birds and rustling leaves. No airplanes overhead or cars driving by. Nothing. There was just Sansa on the porch of this cabin and she felt as if she was the only one in the world.

And how many times had Grandma Minisa stood right here in the mornings and heard the same things and thought the same thoughts as Sansa?

Back inside, Sansa went into the kitchen to pour some dog food into another bowl for Lady while filling her water bowl with a fresh supply. Sansa then went to the coffee machine on the counter and found the can of coffee grounds in the cabinet. She pulled the lid back and closed her eyes, inhaling. Her grandma had loved cinnamon and Sansa loved the scent of coffee.

It was one of the reasons why she had thought of having her own coffee shop before her professor told her that that wasn’t just a smart business to invest in.

Still, it was Sansa’s favorite smell and she might not have been eating as much since her grandma’s death, but she was certainly drinking just as much coffee.

As the machine brewed the pot, Sansa popped two slices of bread into the toaster just because she knew she had to eat _something_ and then, finally, she went to the stack of index cards still out on the counter and went to the next one with the “2” written on the front.

_SATURDAY SCRABBLE NIGHT_

_I know it might sound a little strange, but Blueberry Lake takes their Saturday Scrabble Night VERY seriously. So much of the town shows up for it without fail. It is in the community center every Saturday, starting at six. Make sure you get there at six to get a good table. I have a dictionary on the shelf and you will take that with you. If you can, get a seat at the table with Dr. Jon Snow. He’s the town veterinarian and he’s about as awful a player as I always was. He’s a brilliant man – just terrible at Scrabble. It helps to have truly terrible players at your table because it doesn’t crush you when you do abysmal._

_Or maybe you’ll surprise everyone and show them that you have NOT inherited my lack of Scrabble skills._

_PS – when/if you get a “Q”, find a lone “I”. QI is a word and it is VERY helpful in the Scrabble world._

Sansa smiled when she finished reading her grandma’s latest instruction for her.

Scrabble night? With so many of the town showing up to play?

That actually sounded like amazing fun. She had only played Scrabble one or two times in her life, she thought. Back when words like “CAT” and “THE” were the extent of her vocabulary.

She had always felt like she really didn’t belong in college – though she had only confided in her grandma about that and had never mentioned it to her parents. And it just wasn’t because she was in the business school where she never felt truly comfortable. There was just always a party or drinking games in the dorms and Sansa learned that that just wasn’t her. She didn’t want to go out every night. She didn’t want to get drunk and wake up, hung over. None of that whole stereotypical college life appealed to her and she had always felt like something was wrong with her because of it.

“Because you don’t want to hang your head in a toilet all of a time?” Minisa had frowned a little when Sansa had confessed her feelings to her. “There’s _nothing_ wrong with you, Sansa.”

“But isn’t this what I’m supposed to do in college? What happens when I’m older and I don’t have any of the typical stupid college stories to share?” She asked with tears flooding her eyes.

“What happens?”

“I don’t know. I’m asking you,” Sansa sniffled.

“Sansa, _nothing_ will happen. Who are you always trying so hard to impress?”

Sansa read her grandma’s index card again.

Dr. Jon Snow, Blueberry Lake’s veterinarian. That had to have been the Jon she had met yesterday. She couldn’t imagine there being that many others in this town with the same name. Or maybe she would show up tonight and be surprised, but she had a feeling that the Jon yesterday was her grandma’s Jon – and he had mentioned being her Scrabble partner so that _had_ to be the same Jon because what were the odds that Minisa had _two_ Scrabble partners named Jon?

She thought of the man now with his black beard and black hair, pulled back into a bun. Man buns were usually so annoying and pretentious, but something about the look on this man… well, Sansa hadn’t hated it immediately.

(And Sansa wasn’t even going to think about why she hadn’t hated it or why she had even noticed such a detail in the first place because after college, she wanted nothing to do with guys for a while.)

But Jon and her grandma had obviously liked one another and had known one another well and thought that Sansa would have the same with Jon; especially for Minisa to mention him specifically in the index card.

Saturday Scrabble night in the community center. Sansa was already finding herself looking forward to it.

What exactly did one wear to a Scrabble night?

…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know Scrabble was supposed to be in this chapter, BUT Scrabble night needs to be on its own. Sansa and Jon at the same table and she meeting a lot of the other townspeople. Also, playing Scrabble is one of my favorite things to do - no lie - so I'm really looking forward to writing this lol THANK YOU very much for reading!


	7. Scrabble Saturday

…

**Chapter Seven.** Scrabble Saturday.

The instant Sansa stepped into the main room of the community center, she knew she was overdressed. She should have known she would be overdressed. It was Scrabble night; not a debutant ball. Still, earlier, when she had been looking over the jeans and sweaters she had brought with her, she had wanted something a bit _more_ (for whatever reason). And peeking into the wardrobe that her grandma had in the bedroom, Sansa had expected to find it empty as she had found the dresser drawers and it was empty – except for one thing.

It was a simple, cotton dress in cornflower blue. Sansa had seen her grandma wear it in a couple of pictures and when Sansa slipped it on her own body, it fit perfectly; like it was made specifically for her. She had brought a black cardigan sweater with her and she would take that with her, not knowing how cold the community center would be. There was a long, oval-shaped, full-length mirror standing in the corner of the bedroom and Sansa went there now to look herself over.

She didn’t know why she felt nervous, but she did. Or was that knot in her stomach one of excitement? She honestly couldn’t tell. Perhaps she was a mixture of both. She _was_ a mixture of both, she decided.

Everyone that was going to be there tonight had known her grandmother and now, they would know her, too. They had known a Minisa that Sansa never had. She was nervous and excited to get to know her grandma again.

After putting her hair in a braid, she pulled it over her shoulder and since she hadn’t brought any other shoes with her, she tugged on her black and white Converse sneakers. She looked at herself one more time in the mirror before looking to Lady, who was looking quite comfortable on the bed.

“You stay. I’ll be right back,” Sansa told the dog and Lady thumped her tail against the comforter. Sansa went downstairs and looked around the kitchen for a moment before climbing the stairs once again to the loft. “Here we are.” She handed Lady a rawhide bone and Lady was more than happy to take it. “Now, I would take you with me, but I don’t think animals will be allowed in the community center. Will you stay here and be a good girl for me?”

Lady held the bone between her two front paws and she looked up at Sansa with her tongue hanging out and her tail thumping against the comforter once more.

“Good girl,” Sansa smiled and leaning over, she kissed the top of Lady’s head. “Wish me luck.” Lady thumped her tail harder and her tongue hung out further. Sansa laughed. “I’ll take it.”

In the community center, she was certainly the only one in a dress. Almost everyone else was wearing jeans, a few were wearing workout clothes and then there was one woman wearing her pajamas. Sansa immediately felt ridiculous for having wanted to wear something other than what she had packed with her.

The Blueberry Lake Community Center was a simple setup – not that Sansa was expecting it to be anything else – with it being one single, fairly large room. A small stage was at the far end and the floor seemed to be a basketball court. Currently, there were ten folding tables set up with four chairs each, spread around the room. There was a longer table and Sansa saw the stack of Scrabble game boxes piled there as well as a spread of a variety of food.

Was she supposed to bring something to share? Grandma hadn’t said anything about that in her card. Sansa hugged the dictionary tighter to her chest, not entirely sure what to do or where to go.

“You came.”

Sansa spun around to look at who had spoken. Jon. Or rather, _Doctor_ Jon because he was the town veterinarian and her grandma had been quite fond of him.

Even in blue jeans – a little on the tight side – and a black cable knit sweater, Jon Snow was handsome. So handsome in fact, it made Sansa a little nervous. Not that she knew the first thing about Blueberry Lake, but it was surprising to her that such a small, hidden place would have such a handsome man.

She couldn’t help, but wonder what this Dr. Jon Snow was escaping from. Isn’t that what he said was the reason for many of the people in Blueberry Lake being here?

“I did,” she said with a small smile and a single nod of her head. “I didn’t bring anything to eat. I didn’t know that it was a potluck sort of thing.” She wished her grandma had mentioned that in her card. Sansa would have baked something. She had seen a boxed mix for a chocolate bread in one of the kitchen cabinets.

“I brought that,” Jon said, pointing towards the table and Sansa turned her head, following his finger.

She laughed when she saw the red box of Cheez-Its. She looked back to Jon and found him smiling at her.

“I’ll bring something next Saturday,” she then swiftly promised; a promise she absolutely meant. Her grandma’s card had only mentioned tonight’s Scrabble Saturday, but Sansa had a feeling that Grandma Minisa wanted Sansa to come to these more than just one time.

At her words, Jon smiled a little wider and she saw the corners of his eyes crinkle, reminding her – just in case she was actually able to forget it – how good-looking this man was. After living four years in King’s Landing, Sansa wondered why this man didn’t live down there with all of the other ridiculously beautiful people. He could advertise his veterinarian clinic by posing on a billboard and women – and men – would flock to him whether they actually had a pet or not.

“I’m glad you came,” Jon said, and Sansa wasn’t sure why, but she felt her cheeks grow warm from his words.

“Me, too,” she smiled.

“This is the first game I’ll be playing without your grandma and I wasn’t looking forward to it, to be honest.”

He seemed to be embarrassed to have said that and he cut his eyes quickly away from her. Sansa wasn’t entirely sure why she did, but she reached her hand out and touched his. Immediately, he looked to her again and she gave him the faintest smile.

“I’ll be crap at it,” she warned him.

A smile slowly spread across his face then, his eyes staring into hers. “You’re giving us all way too much credit as to what our Scrabble skills are.” Sansa laughed at that and Jon’s smile only grew.

“Snow! Tully!”

Sansa’s head snapped when she heard someone yell for her. She saw an old woman standing at one of the tables, frowning and waving a hand at both of them.

“Snow, grab a box and let’s get going!” The woman snapped.

“That’s Nan,” Jon explained. “Oldest person in Westeros, I’m convinced. And she’s not mean, I swear. She’s actually quite sweet away from the Scrabble table.”

“She… she doesn’t think I’m…” Sansa knew the question but couldn’t seem to get the words to form.

“She knows damn well what your name is and that you’re her granddaughter. Doesn’t mean she’ll call you anything other than Tully.”

Sansa exhaled a breath at that and looked back to the table and the old woman. She hugged her dictionary a little tighter to her chest.

She was a Stark and she loved being a Stark. She loved having Ned and Catelyn Stark as her parents and there was a great, deep pride everyone in her family – including herself – felt from being a Stark.

But… sometimes… when she spent vacations or weekends with Grandpa Hoster and Grandma Minisa, she sometimes felt far more Tully than she ever did a Stark. She never told anyone that though. She thought it was a betrayal if she voiced that. A betrayal to who, she didn’t know, but it was her secret. She had never even told her grandma.

Jon returned to her side, having gone to get one of the Scrabble boxes, and together, they began heading towards the table where Nan now was sitting, getting herself situated. At the same table, a man – either in his late thirties or early forties – with floppy brown hair stood up on the chair next to Nan.

“Alright, listen up! Welcome to the Thunderdome!” He called out and the other people in the room began to quiet when they heard the man.

“That’s Blueberry Lake’s mayor, Daario,” Jon whispered.

Sansa looked at him, surprised, before looking back to the man standing on the chair. She didn’t know why she was surprised. Daario must have been a good mayor if he had been elected and hadn’t been thrown out of the office yet. It was just… he didn’t look very mayoral, Sansa thought. He was wearing a tee-shirt with a picture of a piñata and then underneath that, it said I’D HIT THAT. 

What did she expect a mayor to wear though? A three-piece suit to play Scrabble on a Saturday night? She was the idiot who had showed up wearing a dress (Converse sneakers aside, a dress was still a dress).

“No cheating. I can’t believe I have to remind people that cheating is NOT permitted! I saw that, Clarence,” Daario frowned at a man. “If you are caught with your own Scrabble tiles, you will be barred from ever playing at Saturday night Scrabble again! I saw that, Clarence,” Daario frowned again. “Let’s play!”

He climbed down from his chair and smiled when he saw Jon, with Sansa,

“Sansa,” Daario grinned, holding out his hand.

Had Jon told everyone about Minisa Tully’s granddaughter being in town or had her grandma really talked about her this much?

“It’s nice to meet you,” Sansa smiled, shaking his hand.

“Welcome to my town. How do you like it so far?” Daario pulled a chair back from the table before sitting down in the one he had been standing on. “And we have your grandma’s favorite Scrabble snack unless the other vultures got it all already.”

“I’ll get it,” Jon volunteered and after setting the Scrabble box down on the table, he went back towards the long table where the food was.

Sansa watched him, wondering what her grandma’s favorite Scrabble snack was, feeling excitement at finding out, and she smiled at both Daario and Nan as she sat down in the chair next to Daario and across from Nan.

“I like it very much already,” Sansa answered Daario’s question.

“Good, you brought the dictionary,” Nan noted as she began to set the game up. Sansa noted that every table had a Lazy-Susan in the middle so the board could be set on there and turned towards each player when it was their turn. “It’s needed for this one.” She cocked her head towards Daario, who’s mouth fell open as if truly insulted by the accusation. “No abbreviations or proper nouns,” she then told Sansa.

“Here you go,” Jon returned and set down a can of Dr. Pepper and one of those Little Debbie brownies with the walnuts on top in the plastic wrapper. He then sat himself down in the final open chair, between Sansa and Nan and across from Daario.

Sansa looked down at it for a moment. “My grandma ate this?” She then asked, looking at the other three.

“Every Saturday night,” Nan confirmed. “Everyone, pick your seven tiles.”

Sansa smiled to herself as she picked seven of the tiles and then flipped them over to see what she had gotten. Daario already asked Nan if he could exchange and she slapped his hand away.

“How did you become mayor?” Sansa asked, _needing_ to know.

All around, the room was filled with chatter, laughter and sometimes shouting about that not being a word.

Sansa looked down to her grandma’s snack again. She admitted that ever since Minisa’s death, her appetite had been practically non-existent. She had eaten more out of habit than anything. Bananas and toast and peanut butter had become her usual go-to foods when she needed to eat something. She just hadn’t been hungry and had already lost some weight.

(Thankfully, her mom hadn’t seemed to notice because she knew Catelyn’s reaction if she _did_ notice.)

But this can of Dr. Pepper and this brownie, Sansa _would_ eat this. This was what her grandma ate and she was here, at Scrabble Saturday because of her grandma.

“Well, Blueberry Lake has a whopping population of 62,” Daario began as Nan placed her first word down.

HARP.

She then calculated the score down in a notebook. It seemed like Nan would be the one to keep score, Sansa noted, looking to the board and then her own letters.

“A lot more in the warmer months when the tourists come, but there’s just 62 of us and _twelve_ were running for mayor. I wasn’t one of them. But with so many people running, the votes got all split and there were eight people who actually wrote my name down on the ballot as a joke.”

Sansa lifted her head to look at him; to see if he was actually telling the truth.

Daario read her mind and gave her a grin. He then put two tiles down to make ATE and turned the board towards Sansa for her turn.

“I got the most votes. Hence, I became mayor.”

“With eight votes?” Sansa almost began laughing because it was one of the most absurd things she had ever heard and she lived with brothers and a sister who loved to spin ridiculous tales when they were in trouble.

No, Rickon. A homeless man hadn’t come into the house, broke one of Catelyn’s vases and left again.

“What’s even more incredible is we haven’t tarred and feathered him yet,” Jon commented.

Sansa looked at him with a smile and Jon smiled back.

She looked to her letters before to the board, trying to think of what she could do. She had to build off of HARP. Daario’s word was proving to be of no help to her. Finally, she moved her tiles to the board.

SHARPEN.

“Excellent job, dear,” Nan smiled and it made Sansa smile, too.

“You’re up, Doc,” Daario said and Sansa turned the board towards Jon.

Jon picked up one tile to set down. NO.

Sansa smiled at him as Nan took her turn. “I see why my grandma played with you,” she teased with a smile and Jon looked at her, giving that smile of his that crinkled his eyes and Sansa felt her cheeks warm again.

…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My muse has been going up and down with this pairing lately so THANK YOU very much for reading and being patient between updates. In the next chapter, Sansa returns to Winterfell after the weekend, but Blueberry Lake is already the place she wants to be.


	8. Sansa Meets Ros

…

**Chapter Eight.** Sansa Meets Ros.

“Sansa?”

Ned tapped lightly on the door before poking his head into the bedroom. He had been the father to five teenagers and had learned – quickly – that just knocking on the door wasn’t enough. He had to wait for permission even if the door was partially open like Sansa’s was right now.

He saw her sitting on the window-seat, knees hugged to her chest and eyes looking through the glass.

“Sansa?”

Finally, she seemed to hear him, and she turned her head from the window to look at him. It was almost as if it took her another moment to realize who it was.

Ned smiled. “Can I come in?”

Sansa smiled, too, and nodded.

“Your mom said dinner will be ready in about five minutes, so I needed to start rallying the troops,” he explained, stepping into the room. He drew nearer to the window-seat and on the floor next to Sansa, he saw that Lady was laying down, chewing a rawhide bone. “You’ve been up here all day,” Ned noted as he sat down next to her feet, his eyes on her.

“The day’s gotten away from me,” Sansa nodded, her head turning back towards the window; the back of it resting against the wall behind her. “I filled out a few job applications online.”

“You did?” Ned began to smile. “Anywhere good?”

“I don’t even remember,” she answered, her eyes still focused outside. “Dad? What are my strengths?”

“You’re honest. You’re kind and have a good heart. When you want something, you work towards it and don’t stop,” he listed off and that last one made Sansa look to him again. “Don’t you think so?” He asked because he could tell that she didn’t necessarily believe any of that.

Sansa kept looking at him and then finally, she shrugged. “I don’t know who I am,” she whispered.

Ned felt his chest tighten and he reached over, squeezing one of her sock-clad feet.

When she was a younger girl, she would sometimes come home in tears. Kids would tease her – calling her Ice Princess or Ice Queen. Because Sansa kept herself stoic, they thought that she didn’t feel anything. The truth was, of Ned and Catelyn’s children, Sansa felt _everything_. She once cried for nearly an hour after they found a dead bird in their yard and of course, they had to have a funeral for it and bury it properly. She remembered every cruel word ever said to her and kept it, locked away, but never forgotten.

Ned and Catelyn both had worried about Sansa and her heart being too open. She tried to hide it and present herself as “ice”, but that wasn’t something someone could hide.

He had been watching her closely since Minisa’s death. It had hit Catelyn hard, of course, and Ned had been watching and comforting his wife as well, but Sansa… he and Catelyn agreed that they needed to keep close eyes on Sansa and her open heart.

But, if Ned was being honest, something had been going on with Sansa since before even graduating.

“Who do you want to be?” Ned asked.

Sansa shook her head and looked back to the window, resting her forehead against the glass. “Someone who’s happy. I don’t know why I’m not happy, but I don’t think I’ve been happy for so long.”

Ned could see the tears building in her eyes and he squeezed her foot again. “Sansa, do you want to go talk to someone? A grief counselor?” He hated the idea of any of his children not being happy, but to actually hear one of his children say, out loud, that they weren’t happy? He admitted that he didn’t know what to do.

He hardly got the question completely out before Sansa was already shaking her head.

She looked to him again. “This Saturday, I was in Blueberry Lake, playing Scrabble and meeting Grandma’s friends, and I was smiling. It’s felt like forever since I did that. Just being closer to her…”

“Ned! Kids! Dinner!” Catelyn shouted up from the bottom of the stairs.

Neither Ned nor Sansa moved as they continued looking at one another. Ned thought on Sansa’s words.

“Not that you need my permission, but do you want to go back to Blueberry Lake?” Ned asked.

Sansa shook her head, but even as she did, Ned could see the true answer in her eyes. “There’s nothing for me to do there.”

“You’d be happy. Wouldn’t you be?”

She shook her head again. “I can’t, dad. I need to get a job and start…” Whatever she was going to say, she stopped herself and shook her head; as if clearing whatever thought it was from herself. “I graduated from college. Now, I have to get a job and Blueberry Lake isn’t exactly teeming with career options.”

“Sansa-” Ned turned more towards her. “You have your inheritance from Grandma Minisa. It obviously isn’t massive, split between all of the grandchildren, but Grandpa Hoster and Grandma Minisa had never been short of money. You know that. And you have all of the money you received as gifts for graduation. You’re not exactly starving at the moment. You can take some time. Figure things out.”

“Dinner!” Catelyn shouted – this time louder. “I’m not saying this just to hear my voice!”

Tears were trickling down Sansa’s cheeks and Ned wondered if she even realized that they were. They weren’t streaming quickly. Instead, they were rolling downwards, slow and taking their time. Ned’s chest tightened even more as he leaned in, wrapping her in his arms and holding her as she wept against his shoulder, her fingers balling in the cotton of his tee-shirt.

“I don’t know what to do,” Sansa then whispered.

Ned turned his head to kiss her on hers. “We’ll figure it out, Sansa. Together,” he promised, and he felt Sansa nod her head, but he already knew that she was doing that whether she actually believed him or not.

Downstairs, at the kitchen table, Catelyn could obviously tell that Sansa had been crying, but she wasn’t going to bring it up in front of everyone else. Sansa wondered if her mom would actually bring it up or if Catelyn would want to Sansa to come to her first. Catelyn was mourning a mother and needing her own comfort. Sansa couldn’t expect her mom to comfort her, too. After all, Minisa had been her grandmother, but Minisa had been Catelyn’s mom and somehow, that relationship felt so far more important.

Sansa didn’t want to be selfish in taking time away from her mom’s own grief.

Most of the dinner conversation that evening was dominated by Bran and Robin, who were in the same science class and had a project due in two weeks; Bran excited for it and Robin already musing what the bare minimum he could do to get a passing grade.

Bran was thinking of maybe building his own robot.

“That’s terrifying,” Rickon told him with wide eyes. “What about when all of the robots rise up and begin killing everyone?” He demands of Bran to answer. “I refuse to be killed by your robot, Bran.”

“Your mom loved the solar system,” Catelyn said to Robin. “Perhaps you can do something with that.”

Robin seemed to think on that, biting off a large chunk of his garlic bread.

Sansa thought of the picture of Grandma Minisa, holding a toddler Lysa, on the cabin’s fireplace mantel. She had meant to talk with her mom about her sister, but apparently, her unforeseen breakdown upstairs in her bedroom had kept her from doing so. She now wondered if she should talk to Robin, too. He had been ten when his mother died, so he obviously would remember Lysa, but what did he remember? And did he ever think of her? How had she been as a mother?

Conversations resumed and flowed around her, but Sansa ate her food and didn’t speak; her mind two hours away. It was surprising to her how badly she missed Blueberry Lake after being away for only a day. She hadn’t even known of this place’s existence days ago, and now, she couldn’t wait to get back to it. Maybe there was something in the lake water; something that made a person ache when they were too far away.

That was absolutely insane, she knew, and yet, remembering the feeling she had felt, walking into the cabin for the first time – an ache of missing her grandma, but a relaxing warmth of peace – maybe thinking there was something magical in Blueberry Lake wasn’t _that_ far-fetched.

And there, she had been smiling and she had felt happy. Even playing Scrabble on Saturday with people she had never met before, she had more comfortable than she had during all four years of college. Had her grandma known that she would feel that way? Is that why she had sent Sansa to Blueberry Lake?

“Dad?” Sansa spoke suddenly as Rickon was in the middle of telling a kickball story from his gym period that day in school. Ned looked to her as he took a sip of his wine. “I have something to show you after dinner. Would you have a moment?”

Ned swallowed. “Of course.”

Sansa wondered why she hadn’t thought to show her dad earlier.

…

It was Rickon’s turn to help clean up after dinner so when her plate was cleared and she had carried it to the sink, Sansa hurried back up the stairs and it took her a few minutes to find it. She honestly didn’t know why she hadn’t thrown it out as soon as she had gotten it back, but now, she was glad that she hadn’t.

Downstairs in the family den, every evening after dinner, Ned settled himself in his Lay-Z-Boy recliner and with a cup of coffee, left from the pot brewed in their home each morning and heated up in the microwave, he flipped through the television channels.

“Uncle Ned!” Robin exclaimed. “Leave this on!”

Ned paused for a moment to see the program. He then resumed flipping. “I’m not watching that. How many times is that show on?”

“ _Nightmare Next Door_ is an excellent program that shows us that no one is to be trusted and that anyone can pull a gun on you and murder you for the smallest infraction, Uncle Ned,” Robin stated.

Ned did his best to not smile. “After I get my hour or two in and when I give up control of the tv, watch any crime show you want, but I’m going to find something that won’t give me nightmares in the meantime.”

He flipped to the History Channel and stayed there.

“Seriously, dad? The history of cereal?” Bran frowned. “Even I’m going to call you a nerd for this.”

Ned just smiled, sipped his coffee and left on the history of cereal. He lifted his eyes when Sansa came into the den, hugging a binder to her chest. She came to him and held it out for him to take.

“This was my senior project. My business model.”

Ned set his coffee mug down and opened the binder to the first page. Sansa hadn’t told her parents what her business model had been; only that she had to create one for one of her classes. He opened his mouth to speak now, but Sansa stopped him before he could.

“Don’t tell me anything yet. I want you to look over the entire thing and let me know what you think.” She paused to swallow the dry cotton in her throat. “Would you mind looking it over for me?”

She didn’t know why she felt nervous. Both Ned and Catelyn Stark were known to do anything for their kids.

Ned closed the binder again and looked up to Sansa. “With a fine-tooth comb,” he vowed, and Sansa found herself able to smile.

…

This time, she packed enough clothes – and enough of Lady’s dog kibble – to last a week and already, as she drove down the forest-lined road into Blueberry Lake, Sansa wondered if she should have packed more.

Rolling into town, she saw the first building on her left. DINER. Sansa eased her foot off the gas as she pulled into the parking lot. She could test out the competition. Not that diner coffee would exactly be competition. And why was she even thinking of that? Her dad had just begun going over her coffee shop business model and even if he thought she should go for it and it wasn’t an exceptionally stupid idea, what made Sansa think that she would open any place up here in Blueberry Lake?

Still, she pulled into a spot and parked before stepping out of the car and then opening the back door for Lady to jump down, the dog stretching and then shaking herself off, waking herself up from the trip. Sansa hooked her leash on and then led Lady over to a patch of grass to relieve herself.

“Alright, I won’t be long. I need you to stay out here and be good. Can you do that?” Sansa asked as she made a knot of Lady’s leash’s handle around a bike rack post. Lady swept her tail and panted, and Sansa kissed her head. “I’ll get you a treat,” she then promised. Lady promptly sat herself down.

Sansa pulled the door open and stepped inside. It was what she would expect a small-town diner to look like. There was a U-shaped counter with brown pleather stools to sit on and booths were in front of the windows, also lined in the same brown pleather. The lamp fixtures and tops to the counter and tables reminded Sansa of the diner being designed in the '70s and no one since wanting to move it from that time.

It smelled like meat and syrup, coffee and cigarettes. It was that strange time – too late for breakfast and too early for lunch – but there were still five other customers there at the moment. A woman with long, thick red hair – dark like cooper – stood behind the counter in a light brown and white waitress uniform to match every other brown and white thing in the diner.

Sansa went to sit herself down on one of the stools at the counter and the waitress appeared with a smile, setting the menu down in front of Sansa. Her name was stitched into her uniform. _ROS_.

“Your grandma always got the ham and cheese omelet,” Ros let her know.

Sansa smiled. She didn’t even ask Ros how she knew that Sansa was Minisa’s granddaughter. Everyone knew. Edd had taken one look at her and had known. 

“I’ll get that, too.” The menu was three pages long, front and back. How did anyone decide what they wanted? She would listen to her grandma on this one. Maybe she’d be able to pick something different next time. “Can I also get a coffee?”

“You got it, hon,” Ros smiled and went to go get the pot of coffee and a clean white porcelain cup for her.

Sansa looked over her shoulder to make sure that Lady was still tied outside – she was – before looking back to Ros when the cup of coffee was set down in front of her. “Thank you.” She took two of the sugar packets and one of the containers of cream to mix in.

“Snow! Order up!” The cook from the kitchen window shouted out while also hitting the bell for pick up.

Sansa held the coffee cup with both hands and her eyes flew up at hearing the last name. (Apparently, people in Blueberry Lake liked to address one another by their last names.) But Ros’s last name…

“Are you and Jon married?” She managed to ask, not understanding the heaviness in her stomach that was there all of a sudden. She had had no idea. He hadn’t been wearing a ring and her grandmother hadn’t mentioned it...

But why would her grandma had mentioned it? 

“Not anymore. We were married for about three minutes before divorcing, but it was enough time for me to change all of my things over to Snow. I’m too lazy to change it back, to be honest. I keep meaning to, but Jon said he didn’t mind,” Ros smiled with a shrug and then went to drop the coffee pot off and go pick up the order to take to one of the tables.

Sansa took a sip of the very standard cup of coffee and couldn’t help but follow Ros as she moved throughout the diner. So, Jon had been married. Divorced now but married all the same to a very pretty woman; a very pretty woman who Jon didn’t mind still having his last name.

Her stomach still felt heavy for whatever reason.

…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANK YOU!! I'm thinking I might have to squeeze another Jon POV into this story shortly. But in the next chapter, Jon and Sansa meet up and spend some time together on Sansa's cabin's dock.


	9. Rowing Your Way

…

**Nine.** Rowing Your Way.

This time, coming to Blueberry Lake, Sansa had planned ahead, and she wore a bikini beneath her clothes. She drove down Dirt Road, through the thick trees until _her_ cabin came into view. Her cabin. Sansa smiled the moment she saw it and felt a lightness in her chest as if she had been having difficulty breathing until this very moment.

(It felt like she was home again, but she didn’t allow her mind to dwell on that. It was still too soon to refer to this cabin or this place as her home. Wasn’t it?)

She turned the car off and then got out, instantly turning to let Lady out from the back, and as Lady sniffed around, relieving herself here and there, Sansa went to the trunk to get her bags. Nothing, but the sounds of birds and a gentle breeze through the tree leaves. She could hear the water gently lapping against the dock and the lake shore and she had an idea that maybe she would sleep with her windows open that night. She liked the idea of falling asleep to the sound of water.

Sansa carried everything from the car into the cabin, seeing that everything was where she had left it – as it should have been – and then, right there in the living room, she stripped from her shoes, shorts and tee-shirt. Her bikini was a dark red color – merlot, the tag had said when she bought it – and she made sure everything that should be covered was. She knew her grandma’s card had said bra and underwear, but she liked to think that Grandma Minisa certainly knew Sansa liked to be prepared.

“Will you jump in with me this time?” She asked Lady as they went back outside, the screen door slapping shut behind them.

Lady just panted and wagged her tail.

Sansa began running and when she reached the dock, she sprinted and when she reached the end, she leapt off. She let out a whoop that echoed into the late morning as she sailed in the air before crashing down into the cool, refreshing water with a splash. The water quickly covered her as she sank low beneath the surface. With her eyes closed, she could hear another muffled splash and she kicked her legs, moving back upwards.

“Good girl,” Sansa beamed as she looked at Lady, the puppy having followed in right after her. Lady was paddling with her two front legs, keeping her head above water, and Sansa swam to her. “Good girl,” she said again and kissed her head.

Lady moved herself away from the dock and closer to the shore, wanting to be in shallower waters, and Sansa remained where she was. She kicked her legs out and found her balance, allowing herself to float on her back and look up at the sky.

Why, in Blueberry Lake, did the sky seem so blue than any other place?

Why, in Blueberry Lake, did Sansa feel like she could stay here forever?

She thought back on Jon’s words from when they first met one another. “A lot of us moved here to escape from things.” What was she getting away from? Why would she want to escape here? There was nothing in her life she needed to get away from.

Or, was that the point? There was nothing in her life. Was that what she was actually escaping from? The nothingness?

She still had no idea what her grandma had been escaping from. Had she felt nothingness, too? But her grandma had had everything. A husband and kids. Wasn’t that what people meant when they said that a person had everything?

Sansa finally pulled herself from the lake when she found herself almost drifting asleep. That wouldn’t be something exactly smart to do – taking a nap in a lake.

She used the little ladder on the side of the dock to pull herself up and she sat down on the warm wood with a sigh. From the shore, Lady pulled herself out and shook herself off before instantly trotting around to the dock and coming back to Sansa. Sansa smiled at her, scratching a hand behind one of her ears and looking back out over the water.

She had just arrived and now had a glorious week stretched out in front of her; a week in Blueberry Lake. Tomorrow, she would wake up and wouldn’t have to start getting ready to drive back to Winterfell. Maybe she could cook herself a nice Sunday breakfast tomorrow. She would have to go get a few things at the grocery store – not just for tomorrow but for the week.

And tonight was another Scrabble Saturday in the community center. She would have her brownie and Dr. Pepper and she would be able to see Nan, Daario and Jon…

Jon.

What was it about him that kept him on Sansa’s mind? What had her grandma seen in the man? Because she had clearly seen something if she had purposely told Sansa about him in her cards. Sansa knew that they had been friends and Sansa guessed that maybe she waned to be friends with the man, too. Maybe that was what Grandma Minisa wanted for Sansa and Jon; to be friends.

But it was more than that. Sansa knew she was being shallow in that his looks were the first thing she noticed about him; and continued to notice. She knew she needed to know more about him besides him dismal Scrabble skills. She _wanted_ to know him.

Lady eventually laid down and went to sleep and Sansa leaned back on her hands, kicking her legs back and forth. She wasn’t in a hurry to go back inside. She wasn’t in a hurry to do anything except sit out in the warm sun, on her dock, and maybe go for another swim in a little bit.

From the diner, the ham and cheese omelet had been massive, and she had only been able to eat half of it. She had taken the other half with her and she would eat that before leaving for Scrabble this evening. She told herself that she _would_ eat the other half before she left. If she didn’t eat it then she wouldn’t permit herself to go to Scrabble Saturday. Her clothes were beginning to not fit her the way they were supposed to.

Out, towards the middle of the lake, Sansa saw a rowboat and someone sitting in it, working both paddles. She couldn’t see who it was, but whoever it was, they were paddling closer to her. She pushed herself off her hands and sat up straight, seeing if that would help her determine who it was; not that she knew so many people in Blueberry Lake. Just a handful. And if she didn’t know them, why were they coming right to her?

Should she go inside and get herself away before this person arrived in their rowboat?

What was the crime like in Blueberry Lake?

Lady had lifted her head, too, watching the boat, but the dog didn’t seem alarmed. Or maybe she was still too young to detect danger.

Sansa was about to bring her legs up from over the water, but then she stopped when she saw. And when she saw who it was in the rowboat, she found herself beginning to smile.

“Hello,” she smiled once he was close enough to hear.

From his rowboat, Jon smiled, too, letting the boat turn sideways towards her dock. “Hello. I was hoping you would come back.”

“I’m back,” she confirmed with a nod. “I couldn’t miss Scrabble Saturday.” His smile grew into a grin. With his hair pulled back into that little bun of his, he wore a black tee-shirt and black swim trunks. Sansa wasn’t going to think on how good he looked. No. She was going to think of something else other than that. “What brings you to this side of the lake?” She asked him.

“My vet’s office is open until noon on Saturdays and after that, I usually go for a run or a row, if the weather agrees. I live right across the lake.” Jon pointed and Sansa followed his finger across the body of water. She saw a little dock much like her own and in the trees, she saw a brown cabin. He looked back to her and Sansa locked into his eyes. “I didn’t mean to intrude. I just started rowing and found myself coming this way.”

“You’re not intruding,” Sansa shook her head and meant it. “Would you like to join me? Or do you have to row away?”

Jon smiled and without a word, he rowed alongside her dock and with a rope from inside the boat, he tied himself to one of the dock posts. He then pulled himself out of the boat and Sansa scooted closer so that he could sit down next to her.

His arm brushed along hers and his skin was tanned and warm.

They sat there for a minute or two, quiet; their legs swinging back and forth over the water.

“I met your ex-wife,” Sansa then, for whatever reason, heard herself blurt out. Jon stopped swinging his legs. Sansa continued. “She’s very nice.”

Jon gave a single nod. “She is. When I first moved to Blueberry Lake, Ros was one of the first friends I made. And a couple years later, when she ran into a problem, I volunteered to help her because I couldn’t imagine not helping her. Her family is really strict and…” he trailed off.

“You don’t have to tell me,” Sansa let him know. She _was_ curious, but Jon’s marriage wasn’t her business by a long shot.

“I don't mind talking about it.” Jon looked at her and gave her the smallest smile then, which Sansa returned with one of her own. “She had been seeing a guy and she wound up pregnant. The guy wasn’t interested, and Ros was terrified of telling her family. She wanted to have the baby and I told her that I would help and tell her family that it was mine.”

Sansa didn’t know what to say to that. She opened her mouth to speak, but she was absolutely speechless. The fact that Jon would do that for one of his friends…

Sansa couldn’t think of a single friend she had ever had who would do such a thing for her.

“She wound up having a miscarriage,” Jon said quietly.

Sansa’s stomach tightened. “I’m sorry.”

“It wasn’t my baby, but shit, it felt like it when he died. It was in her seventh month and Ros named him Jon.”

Now, Sansa could feel tears in her eyes. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered.

Jon looked at her and Sansa could easily tell that he never talked about this. And who could blame him for not wanting to? She felt guilty for feeling that brief moment of jealousy in the diner when she learned that Ros was Jon’s ex-wife; even if Ros had seemed so casual about it. She never would have guessed any of this. It was one of those things that was so sad, a person didn’t even want to imagine it.

“After that, we knew we didn’t love one another. Not like that. So why stay together?”

Sansa was quiet for another moment. “I’m glad you can still be friends,” she then said, and Jon gave that same small smile of his. “Since my Grandma died, I haven’t felt right since, and I keep trying to shake myself out of it. She was a grandma and that’s what grandmas do. They’re here for a little bit and then they die.”

“That doesn’t make it any easier,” Jon said. “People bring their animals in at the end of their lives and I have to put them to sleep so they can be out of pain. Just because this dog or that cat is old and animals don’t live forever, it doesn’t make it easier.”

Something about his words made her smile. “Are you calling my grandma a dog?” She teased.

“Absolutely,” he grinned.

Sansa actually heard herself laugh and it only made Jon keep grinning.

She then exhaled a deep breath. “She wanted me to be here for some reason. The cabin, this place. She left it to me and no one else. I just have no idea why and not knowing why, I feel like I’m failing her.”

“You’re not,” Jon assured her in a soft voice. “Like I said when I first met you, I fully expected you to have wings. Your grandma loved you so much and thought that you could do no wrong. There was a guy you were dating for a while in college… I forgot his name, but your grandma did not like him. More than one Scrabble Saturday turned into Minisa talking about how much better you could do, but even dating him, your grandma still didn’t think you were wrong in anything you did.”

“Harry,” Sansa let out a slight laugh. “And no, grandma definitely did not like him. No one in my family did.” She could still see the way Arya’s nose would wrinkle anytime she even heard Harry’s name.

“Harry,” Jon repeated with a nod; as if his memory had just clicked. “Pretty boy.”

Sansa’s mouth fell open. “Grandma called him that?” The thought made her feel like laughing so that was what she did.

Jon’s grin grew and he was almost laughing now, too. “That was the nicest thing she called him.”

Sansa let out another laugh and she looked out across the lake, releasing a breath, her chest feeling light, but her stomach still feeling tight. She was so tired on her body never seeming to be on the same page anymore. It was like her heart aching while her mind told her to keep moving on.

From the other side of her, Lady let out a yawn and stood herself up. She began to turn herself around, but there was hardly room for her to do so – not that the dog cared. She forced herself to turn around and Sansa found herself leaning against Jon to give Lady more room.

When the dog finally got herself turned out and went up the dock so she could splay out with more room, Sansa turned her head and looked to Jon, he already staring into her face. Slowly, Sansa pulled herself back.

“Sorry,” she murmured with her cheeks feeling warm.

She couldn’t help but note that Dr. Jon Snow was built very strongly. All of that rowing must have played a part in that.

“It’s alright,” Jon said, still staring at her. “And you’re not on some invisible clock, Sansa. You can miss and feel sad over your grandma for as long as you want. I still visit Jon’s grave every week and no one ever tells me that I shouldn’t do that anymore.”

Sansa didn’t know what to say to that. She knew he was right. Her grandma had just died, and Sansa was still mourning her, and no one told her that she shouldn’t be. Sansa was the one telling herself to stop.

“And whatever your grandma wanted you to do here, in Blueberry Lake, you’ll figure it out. You’re not on a clock with that either, “Jon added.

Sansa heard his words and they made her smile; but not a happy one. She wished he was right on that, but he wasn’t, because she _was_ on a clock. She could hear it ticking in her ear even now. She had to figure out what she was doing and what she was going to do before that ticking stopped.

The stack of cards her grandma had left for her were still on the kitchen counter and she had the third card to read once she finally pulled herself from the dock – and Jon. Maybe the third card would, at least, point her in some sort of direction she desperately needed.

…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm generally writing this story by the seat of my pants, just going with it, but I did make a big change to Jon. I wanted to give him a better story so I know I said things in response to the comments in the last chapter, but I went and nixed that. I wanted something different. Thank you to those reading this one! I know it's probably not necessarily my best, but damn, I do love my Hallmark movie lol Thank you again!


End file.
